a little off topic but yet another tragedy for Ft Lewis ( the military base outside seattle, Wa which is the alleged home base of the afghanistan rampage soldier)

http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-olympia-police-investigating-body-found-in-apartment-as-homicide-20120310,0,2532167.story

Why did they release Nidal Hassan's name within hours of his spree killing, but we haven't heard this guy's name yet?

Agreed, reactions will come immediately, and any excuse for a vocal group of American haters and radicals to spur anger and violence will not be missed. Such an unfortunate event by a man who was probably at wits end and frayed emotionally at a very unfortunate time.

takoma wrote:Second, Obama said we must have accountability. If the sentence is anything but death, Afghanistan will be outraged. But many, if not most, Americans will react like 11:00 and say it was an understandable, though tragic, result of what the soldier has gone through, and will strongly object to a death penalty. The campaign will make a football out of it if decisions are made before November.

In this case we actually have a comparable crime: the killing of 13 people at Ft. Hood. In that crime, Nidal Malik Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and faces a possible death sentence. Mental health issues will possibly be part of Hasan's defense. So, if the soldier in Afghanistan were also charged with an appropriate number of counts of premeditated murder and faced with the death penalty, it would seem even-handed and would not prevent him from using mental health issues in his defense. However, I think this entire discussion is moot as these investigations and legal proceedings take so long that nobody in either the US or Afghanistan is going to wait for them to concluded. Reactions will be coming immediately.

We have two major credibility problems, as I see it.

First, some Afghan witnesses claim there were several soldiers, while our information (so far) is that there was one. If our investigation continues to say one, the Afghans will think it's a cover-up to protect other guilty soldiers.

Second, Obama said we must have accountability. If the sentence is anything but death, Afghanistan will be outraged. But many, if not most, Americans will react like 11:00 and say it was an understandable, though tragic, result of what the soldier has gone through, and will strongly object to a death penalty. The campaign will make a football out of it if decisions are made before November.

hard to know what to say about this one...........
IMHO, we just need to get out of there.
How many years, how many countries have tried to do something about Afghanistan.
For us to act like we know what they need or what they want is just outrageous.

If we are going to continue to send troops to Afghanistan and other parts of the world, we need to reinstate the draft. We can't keep sending the same men and women back for multiple tours.

I saw allusions to this story on Twitter last night. I didn't even click on the link because I was hoping it be some kind of reference to something that had already happened and that it would go away. But I knew better. This is deeply distressing. Those poor families.

Anonymous wrote:The sergeant was on his third or four tour as combat arms mos. As bad as it sounds, things like this happen in war. The thing I find amazing is the lack of accountability of the active duty officers in all these incidence- abu ghraib, the koran stuff etc.

I find it interesting (although probably not relevant) that he's from the same base in Washington that most of the kill team was from. The team that killed Afghan civilians for "fun." And the same base as the soldier who went nuts and killed that park ranger recently.

But yes, the military needs to hold him (and others who commit horrifying acts) accountable in the most public way.

Sounds like it might have been soldiers (plural)

The sergeant was on his third or four tour as combat arms mos. As bad as it sounds, things like this happen in war. The thing I find amazing is the lack of accountability of the active duty officers in all these incidence- abu ghraib, the koran stuff etc.

Anonymous wrote:This sickens me, embarrasses me, and makes me incredibly shameful of our continuing presence in that country. I don't understand why we are still there. The Afghani people have made it clear that they don't want us there and we should leave, now.

ITA.

How many future terrorists did this incident create? Of course people are going to want revenge.

Ditto. I find it hard to imagine there is anything we can do there that can counteract the damage of incidents like this. Poll says 60% of us here want to get out.

This sickens me, embarrasses me, and makes me incredibly shameful of our continuing presence in that country. I don't understand why we are still there. The Afghani people have made it clear that they don't want us there and we should leave, now.

I also don't believe that the Koran burning incident was 'accidental', either. Call me a skeptic, but how many pictures have turned up from Iraq with soldiers and corpses? There is a lot of resentment and mistrust between the military and the people in the countries that our government has chosen to invade. Why would Afghanistan be any different?

Ok, rant over.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17332398

Horrifying and so sad. Apparently most of those killed were women and children.